Thanks for the tip on the cable! That's something I definitely hadn't found elsewhere and would be an issue for me.
Those links, plus a review that mentioned the the 2144 (which I wasn't sure whether if it was basically the same machine or not), made me think that at the price--well under $400--would mean this was probably a good deal even if I only used it for the "regular" sewing features, but since most of those were so old, I was a little worried that maybe even the non-embriodery features required a computer plug in or were only intuitive to the longtime "premium" sewing machine user and wouldn't be to someone like me who had such a long break from sewing...
I guess I was looking in part for someone who could either say "go with your gut, this is a great choice" or "you moron, this is an outdated/crummy/only really appreciated by the very few people who want 10 year old Pfaffs because they can't be bothered to learn anything new or appreciate it's unique quirks". I'm usually a pretty decisive person but with such a long time off and then this seemingly too good to be true deal falling into my lap, I'm wondering if my gut is broken
